1)
As another Winter Solstice rolls around, I'm reminded of how exceptional a year 2010 was for Mother Nature. Here at Tandy Hills Natural Area, "just right" amounts of sunshine and rain enabled both Spring wildflowers and Summer grasses to reach their highest potential. For an encore, Ms. Nature surprised us with an upside down Autumn. As I write this on the eve of Winter, December 20, the temperature is 82 degrees. What a wild year!

Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area also had a memorable year. To wit:

Not a bad year for a small group of nature mystics. We must be doing something right. If you agree, please consider making a tax deductible donation to Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area.

FOTHNA is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation operated by volunteers. Our primary purpose is to promote the conservation and restoration of Tandy Hills Natural Area. We partner with the City of Fort Worth in enacting the Master Plan for the restoration of THNA. We also sponsor various educational and recreational events throughout the year to help increase public awareness of THNA and other green spaces. In 2011, we are planning to sponsor FWISD field trips to THNA.

You support of Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area helps insure that this rare, remaining example of native prairie stays protected for present and future generations. Donations via credit card can be easily and securely made at Paypal. Click the DONATE button, HERE.

Thanks for your generous support.

Mid-December, 2010, on the Tandy Hills prairie was on the mild side.

2)
The above mentioned accomplishments of FOTHNA were made possible by a core group of intelligent, hard-working and passionate volunteers. I hope their dedication will inspire you to step up and help us keep Tandy Hills, "like it was."

EXHIBITORS: Take advantage of our Early Bird Special. Secure your reservation at a big discount until the end of December. Register, HERE.

4)
New York Times columnist, Jane Brody, has penned an enlightening essay titled, Head Out for a Daily Dose of Green Space. If you are feeling guilty for not "getting out" more lately, I prescribe you promptly read this essay and get outside, asap.

5)
FOTHNA and Prairie Fest are founded on the principle of protecting the natural world - of inspiring people to live lightly on the Earth and care for creation in a multitude of ways. Like you, we believe that embracing and practicing these principles is life-affirming and beneficial to ourselves and everyone else.

Whom, you may ask, could possibly disapprove such basic human impulses?

Amazingly, a well-funded coalition of Christian conservatives strongly disapproves. They have just issued a 12-part DVD series titled, Resisting the Green Dragon, that details "the dangers of environmentalism." Check out this quote from the group spokesman:

"One of the greatest threats to society and the church today is the multi-faceted environmentalist movement. There isn't an aspect of life that it doesn't seek to force into its own mold."

If that is true, then Prairie Fest must be the local portal to Hell. I think not. Read a shocking report on this outrageous phenomenon in the December issue Mother Jones.

6) "I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every day, if we will only tune in."
-George Washington Carver, 1930

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself."